Scouting Report

Texas A&M (7-6, 1-1 SEC) defeated Ole Miss 57-47 on Tuesday in College Station. The game was an epic defensive battle. With a little over 9 minutes remaining in the first half the score stood at just 11-11. From this point on to end of the half the Rebels would out-score the Aggies 18-8 to take a 29-19 lead to the locker room. However, the Aggies took a 34-32 lead on a jump shot by Wendell Mitchell with 12:11 remaining in the game. An Andre Gordon 3-pointer with 4:35 remaining in the game put A&M up by 10. The Aggies would go on to lead by as much as 13 points in the final minutes of the game. Both the Rebels (26%) and Aggies (18%) were terrible from 3-point range. The difference in this game was at the free throw line where A&M made 16 of 19 attempts (84%) to Ole Miss’ horrendous 4 of 7 attempts (57%). Forward Josh Nebo led the Aggies in scoring with 17. The 6-foot-9 Nebo was an impressive 5 of 5 from the field and 7 of 9 from the line.

Forward Josh Nebo leads the Aggies in scoring (11.8 ppg) and rebound (7.8 rpg). Six-foot-7 guard Savion Flagg is the team’s second leading scorer (11.1). A&M’s biggest strength is its defense. The Aggies currently limit opponents to just 60.4 points a game. That’s third best in the SEC. Texas A&M is second in the conference in field goal defense (38.1%) and fourth in 3-point defense (29%). The Aggies, however, are last in the SEC in scoring offense scoring just 57.8 points a contest. They are 14th in the league in both field goal accuracy (38.8%) and and 3-point accuracy (23.4%). The Aggies rank at or near the bottom of the SEC in most of the other SEC statistical categories.

Vanderbilt (8-6, 0-1 SEC) fell to Auburn 83-79 on Wednesday night at Auburn. The two teams traded leads early but Auburn led at the half 42-38. In the second half the Tigers seemingly had the game under control with a 14-point lead with 7:59 remaining. However, four 3-pointers by Vandy in the final five minutes of play led to the game being tied at 79 with just under a minute to play. Auburn players hit 4 of 4 free throws in the final minute to escape with a win. Vanderbilt guard Saben Lee led all scorers with 27. He was 3 of 3 from 3-point range. Auburn’s Isaac Okoro paced the Tigers with 23. The key stats in this game were second chance points: Auburn 23, Vandy 0. The Tigers also out-rebounded Vandy 39-28. Vandy’s Aaron Nesmith was 4 of 6 from 3-point range.

Vandy’s Nesmith is the leading scorer in the SEC. He’s also the most accurate 3-point shooter in the conference hitting true on 52.2% of his attempts. Lee is the team’s second leading scorer (16.6 ppg).

Vandy is kind of the inverse of Texas A&M statistically. The Commodores are tied at 12th with Georgia in scoring defense allowing 73.4 points a contest. Although the Commodore struggle at stopping opponents from scoring, they do get steals and are fourth in the SEC in that stat category (7.6 spg). Vandy is fifth in the league in scoring (79.2 ppg). The Commodores shoot both well from the 3-point range (1st, 39.3%) and field goal range (2nd, 49.2%). Vandy is 13th in the league in rebounding margin (-0.2) but a better 3rd in turnover margin (+1.6) and assist to turnover ratio (5th, 1.1).

This game should be interesting with a tough defensive team playing a high scoring offensive team. Last week A&M was able to pull a win at home using their strong defense and home court advantage. This week it may be harder playing hot shooting Vandy on the road. Look for the Commodores to end their SEC losing streak on Saturday.